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A star of A&E's popular reality series Storage Wars is accusing the show of rigging key elements in a lawsuit that followed his ouster from the program.

Dave Hester, a key bidder for unclaimed goods in Southern California storage lockers, who's known as "the mogul," says he complained to network executives and producers about items he says were "planted" to heighten the show's drama. In response, he was fired from the show, he claims in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in California Superior Court.

Hester charges A&E and Original Productions with wrongful termination and is seeking $750,000 in damages.

Among items deliberately placed in lockers, he says in the suit, was a pile of newspapers announcing Elvis Presley's death and a small BMW buried in a pile of trash. The production company "regularly 'salts' the storage lockers that are the subjects of the auctions portrayed on the series with valuable or unusual items to add dramatic effect, even going so far as to stage entire storage units," the lawsuit says, and "manipulates the outcome of certain auctions by paying for storage units on behalf of the weaker cast members who lack both the skill and financial wherewithal to place winning bids."

The suit says Hester was "not comfortable participating in this charade" but does not say whether his comfort level shifted during the show's 80-episode run or whether the "salting" is a more recent development.

"We don't comment on pending litigation," says A&E spokesman Dan Silberman. Original Productions spokeswoman Elizabeth Vendely did not respond to a request for comment. But when questions surfaced earlier about the show's authenticity, the network said in a statement that "there is no staging involved. The items uncovered in the storage units are the actual items featured on the show."

Storage Wars, which regularly draws an average of 4 million viewers, is among the network's most popular shows, now trailing only the newer Duck Dynasty. It features items retrieved from unpaid lockers and auctioned off, after a glimpse by prospective buyers such as Hester.

The show, which is scheduled to end its third season Dec. 18, has spawned spinoffs set in Texas and New York (which begins Jan. 1). Original's Thom Beers, its executive producer, is also behind a spate of other successful series, including Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers.

Like dozens of other cable reality shows that profile unusual occupations, Storage Wars is marketed as an entertainment series, not a documentary. But Andy Dehnart, editor of TV blog RealityBlurred.com, says that while "every reality show involves some level of control on the part of producers," such revelations still "shock people because reality TV wouldn't be as popular if everyone thought it was scripted."

As the genre has gained prominence over the past decade, it's proved to be a popular medium for legal action. Survivor contestant Stacey Stillman sued the show in 2001, alleging that other teammates were coerced into voting her off. Several lawsuits by producers have sought damages for violating confidentiality agreements. "Anytime there's a disagreement over a contract, the retaliation is to peel back the curtain and reveal that a reality program is not real," says Northwestern University assistant professor Max Dawson.

Court action isn't the only venue for some participants to reveal fakery: A couple featured on HGTV's House Hunters said in June that they were accepted on the show only after they had already selected a home and were told to find friends' houses that were not available for purchase to tour on camera.

In recent weeks, similar complaints were raised about staged scenes in Discovery's Amish Mafia, and Kristin Cavallari, a star of MTV's former hit The Hills, admitted that the reality show was largely scripted: "Fake relationships, fake fights ... but it was fun, 'cause you're acting," she told Bravo talk-show host Andy Cohen.